attachment to the republic into suspicion; and the mass, which had atfirst supported, now forsook them. The constitutionalists of 1791, and thedirectorial party formed an alliance. The club of _Salm_, establishedunder the auspices of this alliance, was opposed to the club of _Clichy_,which for a long time had been the rendezvous of the most influentialmembers of the councils. The directory, while it had recourse to opinion,did not neglect its principal force--the support of the troops. It broughtnear Paris several regiments of the army of the Sambre-et-Meuse, commandedby Hoche. The constitutional radius of six myriametres (twelve leagues),which the troops could not legally pass, was violated: and the councilsdenounced this violation to the directory, which feigned an ignorance,wholly disbelieved, and made very weak excuses.

The two parties were watching each other. One had its posts at thedirectory, at the club of _Salm_, and in the army, the other, in thecouncils, at _Clichy_, and in the _salons_ of the royalists. The mass werespectators. Each of the two parties was disposed to act in a revolutionarymanner towards the other. An intermediate constitutional and conciliatoryparty tried to prevent the struggle, and to bring about an union, whichwas altogether impossible. Carnot was at its head: a few members of theyounger council, directed by Thibaudeau, and a tolerably large number ofthe Ancients, seconded his projects of moderation. Carnot, who, at thatperiod, was the director of the constitution, with Barthélemy, who was thedirector of the legislature, formed a minority in the government. Carnot,very austere in his conduct and very obstinate in his views, could notagree either with Barras or with the imperious Rewbell. To this oppositionof character was then added difference of system. Barras and Rewbell,supported by La Réveillère, were not at all averse to a coup-d'étatagainst the councils, while Carnot wished strictly to follow the law. Thisgreat citizen, at each epoch of the revolution, had perfectly seen themode of government which suited it, and his opinion immediately became afixed idea. Under the committee of public safety, the dictatorship was hisfixed system, and under the directory, legal government. Recognising nodifference of situation, he found himself placed in an equivocal position;he wished for peace in a moment of war; and for law, in a moment of coups-d'état.

The councils, somewhat alarmed at the preparations of the directory,seemed to make the dismissal of a few ministers, in whom they placed noconfidence, the price of reconciliation. These were, Merlin de Douai, theminister of justice; Delacroix, minister of foreign affairs; and Ramel,minister of finance. On the other hand they desired to retain Pétiet asminister of war, Bénésech as minister of the interior, and Cochon deLapparent as minister of police. The legislative body, in default ofdirectorial power, wished to make sure of the ministry. Far from fallingin with this wish, which would have introduced the enemy into thegovernment, Rewbell, La Réveillère and Barras dismissed the ministersprotected by the councils, and retained the others. Bénésech was replacedby François de Neufchâteau, Pétiet by Hoche, and soon afterwards bySchérer; Cochon de Lapparent, by Lenoir-Laroche; and Lenoir-Laroche, whohad too little decision, by Sotin. Talleyrand, likewise, formed part ofthis ministry. He had been struck off the list of emigrants, from theclose of the conventional session, as a revolutionist of 1791; and hisgreat sagacity, which always placed him with the party having the greatesthope of victory, made him, at this period, a directorial republican. Heheld the portfolio of Delacroix, and he contributed very much, by hiscounsels and his daring, to the events of Fructidor.

War now appeared more and more inevitable. The directory did not wish fora reconciliation, which, at the best, would only have postponed itsdownfall and that of the republic to the elections of the year VI. Itcaused threatening addresses against the councils to be sent from thearmies. Bonaparte had watched with an anxious eye the events which werepreparing in Paris. Though intimate with Carnot, and correspondingdirectly with him, he had sent Lavalette, his aid-de-camp, to furnish himwith an account of the divisions in the government, and the intrigues andconspiracies with which it was beset. Bonaparte had promised the directorythe support of his army, in case of actual danger. He sent Augereau toParis with addresses from his troops. "Tremble, royalists!" said thesoldiers. "From the Adige to the Seine is but a step. Tremble! youriniquities are numbered; and their recompense is at the end of ourbayonets."--"We have observed with indignation," said the staff, "theintrigues of royalty threatening liberty. By the manes of the heroes slainfor our country, we have sworn implacable war against royalty androyalists. Such are our sentiments; they are yours, and those of allpatriots. Let the royalists show themselves, and their days are numbered."The councils protested, but in vain, against these deliberations of thearmy. General Richepanse, who commanded the troops arrived from the armyof the Sambre-et-Meuse, stationed them at Versailles, Meudon, andVincennes.

The councils had been assailants in Prairial, but as the success of theircause might be put off to the year VI., when it might take place withoutrisk or combat, they kept on the defensive after Thermidor (July, 1797).They, however, then made every preparation for the contest: they gaveorders that the _constitutional circles_ should be closed, with a view togetting rid of the club of _Salm_; they also increased the powers of thecommission of inspectors of the hall, which became the government of thelegislative body, and of which the two royalist conspirators, Willot andPichegru, formed part. The guard of the councils, which was under thecontrol of the directory, was placed under the immediate orders of theinspectors of the hall. At last, on the 17th Fructidor, the legislativebody thought of procuring the assistance of the militia of Vendémiaire,and it decreed, on the motion of Pichegru, the formation of the nationalguard. On the following day, the 18th, this measure was to be executed,and the councils were by a decree to order the troops to remove to adistance. They had reached a point that rendered a new victory necessaryto decide the great struggle of the revolution and the ancient system. Theimpetuous general, Willot, wished them to take the initiative, to decreethe impeachment of the three directors, Barras, Rewbell, and LaRéveillère; to cause the other two to join the legislative body; if thegovernment refused to obey, to sound the tocsin, and march with the oldsectionaries against the directory; to place Pichegru at the head of this_legal insurrection_, and to execute all these measures promptly, boldly,and at mid-day. Pichegru is said to have hesitated; and the opinion of theundecided prevailing, the tardy course of legal preparations was adopted.

It was not, however, the same with the directory. Barras, Rewbell, and LaRéveillère determined instantly to attack Carnot, Barthélemy, and thelegislative majority. The morning of the 18th was fixed on for theexecution of this coup-d'état. During the night, the troops encamped inthe neighbourhood of Paris, entered the city under the command ofAugereau. It was the design of the directorial triumvirate to occupy theTuileries with troops before the assembling of the legislative body, inorder to avoid a violent expulsion; to convoke the councils in theneighbourhood of the Luxembourg, after having arrested their principalleaders, and by a legislative measure to accomplish a coup-d'état begun byforce. It was in agreement with the minority of the councils, and reliedon the approbation of the mass. The troops reached the Hôtel de Ville atone in the morning, spread themselves over the quays, the bridges, and theChamps Élysées, and before long, twelve thousand men and forty pieces ofcannon surrounded the Tuileries. At four o'clock the alarm-shot was fired,and Augereau presented himself at the gate of the Pont-Tournant.

The guard of the legislative body was under arms. The inspectors of thehall, apprised the night before of the movement in preparation, hadrepaired to the national palace (the Tuileries), to defend the entrance.Ramel, commander of the legislative guard, was devoted to the councils,and he had stationed his eight hundred grenadiers in the different avenuesof the garden, shut in by gates. But Pichegru, Willot, and Ramel, couldnot resist the directory with this small and uncertain force. Augereau hadno need even to force the passage of the Pont-Tournant: as soon as he camebefore the grenadiers, he cried out, "Are you republicans?" The latterlowered their arms and replied, "Vive Augereau! Vive le directoire!" andjoined him. Augereau traversed the garden, entered the hall of thecouncils, arrested Pichegru, Willot, Ramel, and all the inspectors of thehall, and had them conveyed to the Temple. The members of the councils,convoked in haste by the inspectors, repaired in crowds to their place ofsitting; but they were arrested or refused admittance by the armed force.Augereau announced to them that the directory, urged by the necessity ofdefending the republic from the conspirators among them, had assigned theOdéon and the School of Medicine for the place of their sittings. Thegreater part of the deputies present exclaimed against military violenceand the dictatorial usurpation, but they were obliged to yield.

At six in the morning this expedition was terminated. The people of Paris,on awaking, found the troops still under arms, and the walls placardedwith proclamations announcing the discovery of a formidable conspiracy.The people were exhorted to observe order and confidence. The directoryhad printed a letter of general Moreau, in which he announced in detailthe plots of his predecessor Pichegru with the emigrants, and anotherletter from the prince de Condé to Imbert Colomès, a member of theAncients. The entire population remained quiet; they were mere spectatorsof an event brought about without the interference of parties, and by theassistance of the army only. They displayed neither approbation norregret.

The directory felt the necessity of legalizing, and more especially ofterminating, this extraordinary act. As soon as the members of the fivehundred, and of the ancients, were assembled at the Odéon and the Schoolof Medicine in sufficient numbers to debate, they determined to sitpermanently. A message from the directory announced the motive which hadactuated all its measures. "Citizens, legislators," ran the message, "ifthe directory had delayed another day, the republic would have been givenup to its enemies. The very place of your sittings was the rendezvous ofthe conspirators: from thence they yesterday distributed their plans andorders for the delivery of arms; from thence they corresponded last nightwith their accomplices; lastly, from thence, or in the neighbourhood, theyagain endeavoured to raise clandestine and seditious assemblies, which thepolice at this moment are employed in dispersing. We should havecompromised the public welfare, and that of its faithful representatives,had we suffered them to remain confounded with the foes of the country inthe den of conspiracy."

The younger council appointed a commission, composed of Sieyès, Poulain-Granpré, Villers, Chazal, and Boulay de la Meurthe, deputed to present alaw of _public safety_. The law was a measure of ostracism; onlytransportation was substituted for the scaffold in this secondrevolutionary and dictatorial period.

The directory greatly extended this act of ostracism. The authors ofthirty-five journals were included in the sentence of transportation. Itwished to strike at once all the avenues of the republic in the councils,in the press, in the electoral assemblies, the departments, in a word,wherever they had introduced themselves. The elections of forty-eightdepartments were annulled, the laws in favour of priests and emigrantswere revoked, and soon afterwards the disappearance of all who had swayedin the departments since the 9th Thermidor raised the spirits of the cast-down republican party. The coup-d'état of Fructidor was not purelycentral; like the victory of Vendémiaire; it ruined the royalist party,which had only been repulsed by the preceding defeat. But, by againreplacing the legal government by the dictatorship, it rendered necessaryanother revolution, which shall be recounted later.

We may say, that on the 18th Fructidor of the year V. it was necessarythat the directory should triumph over the counterrevolution by decimatingthe councils; or that the councils should triumph over the republic byoverthrowing the directory. The question thus stated, it remains toinquire, 1st, if the directory could have conquered by any other meansthan a coup-d'état; 2ndly, whether it misused its victory?

The government had not the power of dissolving the councils. At thetermination of a revolution, whose object was to establish the extremeright, they were unable to invest a secondary authority with the controlof the sovereignty of the people, and in certain cases to make thelegislature subordinate to the directory. This concession of anexperimental policy not existing, what means remained to the directory ofdriving the enemy from the heart of the state? No longer able to defendthe revolution by virtue of the law, it had no resource but thedictatorship; but in having recourse to that, it broke the conditions ofits existence; and while saving the revolution, it soon fell itself.

As for its victory, it sullied it with violence, by endeavouring to makeit too complete. The sentence of transportation was extended to too manyvictims; the petty passions of men mingled with the defence of the cause,and the directory did not manifest that reluctance to arbitrary measureswhich is the only justification of coups-d'état. To attain its object, itshould have exiled the leading conspirators only; but it rarely happensthat a party does not abuse the dictatorship; and that, possessing thepower, it believes not in the dangers of indulgence. The defeat of the18th Fructidor was the fourth of the royalist party; two took place inorder to dispossess it of power, those of the 14th of July and 10th ofAugust; two to prevent its resuming it; those of the 13th Vendémiaire and18th Fructidor. This repetition of powerless attempts and protractedreverses did not a little contribute to the submission of this party underthe consulate and the empire.

CHAPTER XIII

FROM THE 18TH FRUCTIDOR, IN THE YEAR V. (4TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1797), TO THE18TH BRUMAIRE, IN THE YEAR VIII. (9TH OF NOVEMBER, 1799)

The chief result of the 18th Fructidor was a return, with slightmitigation, to the revolutionary government. The two ancient privilegedclasses were again excluded from society; the dissentient priests wereagain banished. The Chouans, and former fugitives, who occupied the fieldof battle in the departments, abandoned it to the old republicans: thosewho had formed part of the military household of the Bourbons, thesuperior officers of the crown, the members of the parliaments, commandersof the order of the Holy Ghost and Saint Louis, the knights of Malta, allthose who had protested against the abolition of nobility, and who hadpreserved its titles, were to quit the territory of the republic. The ci-devant nobles, or those ennobled, could only enjoy the rights of citizens,after a term of seven years, and after having gone through a sort ofapprenticeship as Frenchmen. This party, by desiring sway, restored thedictatorship.

At this period the directory attained its maximum of power; for some timeit had no enemies in arms. Delivered from all internal opposition, itimposed the continental peace on Austria by the treaty of Campo-Formio,and on the empire by the congress of Rastadt. The treaty of Campo-Formiowas more advantageous to the cabinet of Vienna than the preliminaries ofLeoben. Its Belgian and Lombard states were paid for by a part of theVenetian states. This old republic was divided; France retained the IonianIsles, and gave the city of Venice and the provinces of Istria andDalmatia to Austria. In this the directory committed a great fault, andwas guilty of an attempt against liberty. In the fanaticism of a system,we may desire to set a country free, but we should never give it away. Byarbitrarily distributing the territory of a small state, the directory setthe bad example of this traffic in nations since but too much followed.Besides, Austrian dominion would, sooner or later, extend in Italy,through this imprudent cession of Venice.

The coalition of 1792 and 1793 was dissolved; England was the onlyremaining belligerent power. The cabinet of London was not at all disposedto cede to France, which it had attacked in the hope of weakening it,Belgium, Luxembourg, the left bank of the Rhine, Porentruy, Nice, Savoy,the protectorate of Genoa, Milan, and Holland. But finding it necessary toappease the English opposition, and reorganize its means of attack, itmade propositions of peace; it sent Lord Malmesbury as plenipotentiary,first to Paris, then to Lille. But the offers of Pitt not being sincere,the directory did not allow itself to be deceived by his diplomaticstratagems. The negotiations were twice broken off, and war continuedbetween the two powers. While England negotiated at Lille, she waspreparing at Saint Petersburg the triple alliance, or second coalition.

The directory, on its side, without finances, without any party in theinterior, having no support but the army, and no eminence save thatderived from the continuation of its victories, was not in a condition toconsent to a general peace. It had increased the public discontent by theestablishment of certain taxes and the reduction of the debt to aconsolidated third, payable in specie only, which had ruined thefundholders. It became necessary to maintain itself by war. The immensebody of soldiers could not be disbanded without danger. Besides, beingdeprived of its power, and being placed at the mercy of Europe, thedirectory had attempted a thing never done without creating a shock,except in times of great tranquillity, of great ease, abundance, andemployment. The directory was driven by its position to the invasion ofSwitzerland and the expedition into Egypt.

Bonaparte had then returned to Paris. The conqueror of Italy and thepacificator of the continent, was received with enthusiasm, constrained onthe part of the directory, but deeply felt by the people. Honours wereaccorded him, never yet obtained by any general of the republic. Apatriotic altar was prepared in the Luxembourg, and he passed under anarch of standards won in Italy, on his way to the triumphal ceremony inhis honour. He was harangued by Barras, president of the directory, who,after congratulating him on his victories, invited him "to crown so noblea life by a conquest which the great country owed to its insulteddignity." This was the conquest of England. Everything seemed inpreparation for a descent, while the invasion of Egypt was really theenterprise in view.

Such an expedition suited both Bonaparte and the directory. Theindependent conduct of that general in Italy, his ambition, which, fromtime to time, burst through his studied simplicity, rendered his presencedangerous. He, on his side, feared, by his inactivity, to compromise thealready high opinion entertained of his talents: for men always requirefrom those whom they make great, more than they are able to perform. Thus,while the directory saw in the expedition to Egypt the means of keeping aformidable general at a distance, and a prospect of attacking the Englishby India, Bonaparte saw in it a gigantic conception, an employment suitedto his taste, and a new means of astonishing mankind. He sailed fromToulon on the 30th Floréal, in the year VI. (19th May, 1798), with a fleetof four hundred sail, and a portion of the army of Italy; he steered forMalta; of which he made himself master, and from thence to Egypt.

The directory, who violated the neutrality of the Ottoman Porte in orderto attack the English, had already violated that of Switzerland, in orderto expel the emigrants from its territory. French opinions had alreadypenetrated into Geneva and the Pays de Vaud; but the policy of the Swissconfederation was counter-revolutionary, from the influence of thearistocracy of Berne. They had driven from the cantons all the Swiss whohad shown themselves partisans of the French republic. Berne was theheadquarters of the emigrants, and it was there that all the plots againstthe revolution were formed. The directory complained, but did not receivesatisfaction. The Vaudois, placed by old treaties under the protection ofFrance, invoked her help against the tyranny of Berne. This appeal of theVaudois, its own grievances, its desire to extend the directorialrepublican system to Switzerland, much more than the temptation of seizingthe little amount of treasure in Berne, a reproach brought against it bysome, determined the directory. Some conferences took place, which led tono result, and war began. The Swiss defended themselves with much courageand obstinacy, and hoped to resuscitate the times of their ancestors, butthey succumbed. Geneva was united to France, and Switzerland exchanged itsancient constitution for that of the year III. From that time two partiesexisted in the confederation, one of which was for France and therevolution, the other for the counter-revolution and Austria. Switzerlandceased to be a common barrier, and became the high road of Europe.

This revolution had been followed by that of Rome. General Duphot waskilled at Rome in a riot; and in punishment of this assassination, whichthe pontifical government had not interfered to prevent, Rome was changedinto a republic. All this combined to complete the system of thedirectory, and make it preponderant in Europe; it was now at the head ofthe Helvetian, Batavian, Ligurian, Cisalpine, and Roman republics, allconstructed on the same model. But while the directory extended itsinfluence abroad, it was again menaced by internal parties.

The elections of Floréal in the year VI. (May, 1798) were by no meansfavourable to the directory; the returns were quite at variance with thoseof the year V. Since the 18th Fructidor, the withdrawal of the counter-revolutionists had restored all the influence of the exclusive republicanparty, which had reestablished the clubs under the name of _ConstitutionalCircles_. This party dominated in the electoral assemblies, which, mostunusually, had to nominate four hundred and thirty-seven deputies: twohundred and ninety-eight for the council of five hundred; a hundred andthirty-nine for that of the ancients. When the elections drew near, thedirectory exclaimed loudly against the _anarchists_. But its proclamationshaving been unable to prevent democratic returns, it decided uponannulling them in virtue of a law, by which the councils, after the 18thFructidor, had granted it the _power of judging_ the operations of theelectoral assemblies. It invited the legislative body, by a message, toappoint a commission of five members for that purpose. On the 22ndFloréal, the elections were for the most part annulled. At this period thedirectorial party struck a blow at the extreme republicans, as nine monthsbefore it had aimed at the royalists.

The directory wished to maintain the political balance, which had been thecharacteristic of its first two years; but its position was much changed.Since its last coup-d'état, it could no longer be an impartial government,because it was no longer a constitutional government. With thesepretensions of isolation, it dissatisfied every one. Yet it lived on inthis way till the elections of the year VII. It displayed much activity,but an activity of a narrow and shuffling nature. Merlin de Douai andTreilhard, who had replaced Carnot and Barthélemy, were two politicallawyers. Rewbell had in the highest degree the courage, without having theenlarged views of a statesman. Laréveillère was too much occupied with thesect of the Theophilanthropists for a government leader. As to Barras, hecontinued his dissipated life and his directorial regency; his palace wasthe rendezvous of gamesters, women of gallantry, and stock-jobbers ofevery kind. The administration of the directors betrayed their character,but more especially their position; to the embarrassments of which wasadded war with all Europe.

While the republican plenipotentiaries were yet negotiating for peace withthe empire at Rastadt, the second coalition began the campaign. The treatyof Campo-Formio had only been for Austria a suspension of arms. Englandhad no difficulty in gaining her to a new coalition; with the exception ofSpain and Prussia, most of the European powers formed part of it. Thesubsidies of the British cabinet, and the attraction of the West, decidedRussia; the Porte and the states of Barbary acceded to it, because of theinvasion of Egypt; the empire, in order to recover the left bank of theRhine, and the petty princes of Italy, that they might destroy the newrepublics. At Rastadt they were discussing the treaty relative to theempire, the concession of the left bank of the Rhine, the navigation ofthat river, and the demolition of some fortresses on the right bank, whenthe Russians entered Germany, and the Austrian army began to move. TheFrench plenipotentiaries, taken by surprise, received orders to leave infour and twenty hours; they obeyed immediately, and set out, after havingobtained safe conduct from the generals of the enemy. At a short distancefrom Rastadt they were stopped by some Austrian hussars, who, havingsatisfied themselves as to their names and titles, assassinated them:Bonnier and Roberjot were killed, Jean de Bry was left for dead. Thisunheard-of violation of the right of nations, this premeditatedassassination of three men invested with a sacred character, excitedgeneral horror. The legislative body declared war, and declared it withindignation against the governments on whom the guilt of this enormityfell.

Hostilities had already commenced in Italy and on the Rhine. Thedirectory, apprised of the march of the Russian troops, and suspecting theintentions of Austria, caused the councils to pass a law for recruiting.The military conscription placed two hundred thousand young men at thedisposal of the republic. This law, which was attended with incalculableconsequences, was the result of a more regular order of things. Levies _enmasse_ had been the revolutionary service of the country; the conscriptionbecame the legal service.

The most impatient of the powers, those which formed the advanced guard ofthe coalition, had already commenced the attack. The king of Naples hadadvanced on Rome, and the king of Sardinia had raised troops andthreatened the Ligurian republic. As they had not sufficient power tosustain the shock of the French armies, they were easily conquered anddispossessed. General Championnet entered Naples after a sanguinaryvictory. The lazaroni defended the interior of the town for three days;but they yielded, and the Parthenopian republic was proclaimed. GeneralJoubert occupied Turin; and the whole of Italy was in the hands of theFrench, when the new campaign began.

The coalition was superior to the republic in effective force and inpreparations. It attacked it by the three great openings of Italy,Switzerland, and Holland. A strong Austrian army debouched in the duchy ofMantua; it defeated Scherer twice on the Adige, and was soon joined by thewhimsical and hitherto victorious Suvorov. Moreau replaced Scherer, and,like him, was beaten; he retreated towards Genoa, in order to keep thebarrier of the Apennines and to join the army of Naples, commanded byMacdonald, which was overpowered at the Trebia. The Austro-Russians thendirected their chief forces upon Switzerland. A few Russian corps joinedthe archduke Charles, who had defeated Jourdan on the Upper Rhine, and waspreparing to pass over the Helvetian barrier. At the same time the duke ofYork disembarked in Holland with forty thousand Anglo-Russians. The smallrepublics which protected France were invaded, and a few more victorieswould have enabled the confederates to penetrate even to the scene of therevolution.

In the midst of these military disasters and the discontent of parties,the elections of Floréal in the year VII. (May, 1799) took place; theywere republican, like those of the preceding year. The directory was nolonger strong enough to contend with public misfortunes and the rancour ofparties. The retirement of Rewbell, who was replaced by Sieyès, caused itto lose the only man able to face the storm, and brought into its bosomthe most avowed antagonist of this compromised and worn-out government.The moderate party and the extreme republicans united in demanding fromthe directory an account of the internal and external situation of therepublic. The councils sat permanently. Barras abandoned his colleagues.The fury of the councils was directed solely against Treilhard, Merlin,and La Réveillère, the last supports of the old directory. They deposedTreilhard, because an interval of a year had not elapsed between hislegislative and his directorial functions, as the constitution required.The ex-minister of justice, Gohier, was immediately chosen to replace him.

The orators of the councils then warmly attacked Merlin and La Réveillère,whom they could not dismiss from the directory. The threatened directorssent a justificatory message to the councils, and proposed peace. On the30th Prairial, the republican Bertrand (du Calvados) ascended the tribune,and after examining the offers of the directors, exclaimed: "You haveproposed union; and I propose that you reflect if you yourselves can stillpreserve your functions. If you love the republic you will not hesitate todecide. You are incapable of doing good; you will never have theconfidence of your colleagues, that of the people, or that of therepresentatives, without which you cannot cause the laws to be executed. Iknow that, thanks to the constitution, there already exists in thedirectory a majority which enjoys the confidence of the people, and thatof the national representation. Why do you hesitate to introduce unanimityof desires and principles between the two first authorities of therepublic? You have not even the confidence of those vile flatterers, whohave dug your political tomb. Finish your career by an act of devotion,which good republican hearts will be able to appreciate."

Merlin and La Réveillère, deprived of the support of the government by theretirement of Rewbell, the dismissal of Treilhard, and the desertion ofBarras, urged by the councils and by patriotic motives, yielded tocircumstances, and resigned the directorial authority. This victory,gained by the republican and moderate parties combined, turned to theprofit of both. The former introduced general Moulins into the directory;the latter, Roger Ducos. The 30th Prairial (18th June), which witnessedthe breaking up of the old government of the year III., was an act ofreprisal on the part of the councils against the directory for the 18thFructidor and the 22nd Floréal. At this period the two great powers of thestate had each in turn violated the constitution: the directory bydecimating the legislature; the legislature by expelling the directory.This form of government, which every party complained of, could not have aprotracted existence.

Sieyès, after the success of the 30th Prairial, laboured to destroy whatyet remained of the government of the year III., in order to establish thelegal system on another plan. He was whimsical and systematic; but he hadthe faculty of judging surely of situations. He re-entered upon the sceneof the revolution of a singular epoch, with the intention of strengtheningit by a definitive constitution. After having co-operated in the principalchanges of 1789, by his motion of the 17 of June, which transformed thestates-general into a national assembly, and by his plan of internalorganization, which substituted departments for provinces, he had remainedpassive and silent during the subsequent interval. He waited till theperiod of public defence should again give place to institutions.Appointed, under the directory, to the embassy at Berlin, the neutralityof Prussia was attributed to his efforts. On his return, he accepted theoffice of director, hitherto refused by him, because Rewbell was leavingthe government, and he thought that parties were sufficiently weary toundertake a definitive pacification, and the establishment of liberty.With this object, he placed his reliance on Roger-Ducos in the directory,on the council of ancients in the legislature, and without, on the mass ofmoderate men and the middle-class, who, after desiring laws, merely as anovelty, now desired repose as a novelty. This party sought for a strongand secure government, which should have no past, no enmities, and whichthenceforward might satisfy all opinions and interests. As all that hadbeen dene, from the 14th of July till the 9th Thermidor, by the people, inconnexion with a part of the government, had been done since the 13thVendémiaire by the soldiers, Sieyès was in want of a general. He cast hiseyes upon Joubert, who was put at the head of the army of Italy, in orderthat he might gain by his victories, and by the deliverance of Italy, agreat political importance.

The constitution of the year III. was, however, still supported by the twodirectors, Gohier and Moulins, the council of five hundred, and without,by the party of the _Manège_. The decided republicans had formed a clubthat held its sittings in that hall where had sat the first of ourassemblies. The new club, formed from the remains of that of Salm, beforethe 18th Fructidor; of that of the Panthéon, at the beginning of thedirectory; and of the old society of the Jacobins, enthusiasticallyprofessed republican principles, but not the democratic opinions of theinferior class. Each of these parties also had a share in the ministrywhich had been renewed at the same time as the directory. Cambacérès hadthe department of justice; Quinette, the home department; Reinhard, whohad been temporarily placed in office during the ministerial interregnumof Talleyrand, was minister of foreign affairs; Robert Lindet was ministerof finance, Bourdon (of Vatry) of the navy, Bernadotte of war,Bourguignon, soon afterwards replaced by Fouché (of Nantes), of police.

This time Barras remained neutral between the two divisions of thelegislature, of the directory and of the ministry. Seeing that matterswere coming to a more considerable change than that of the 30th Prairial,he, an ex-noble, thought that the decline of the republic would lead tothe restoration of the Bourbons, and he treated with the Pretender LouisXVIII. It seems that, in negotiating the restoration of the monarchy byhis agent, David Monnier, he was not forgetful of himself. Barras espousednothing from conviction, and always sided with the party which had thegreatest chance of victory. A democratic member of the Mountain on the31st of May; a reactionary member of the Mountain on the 9th Thermidor; arevolutionary director against the royalists on the 18th Fructidor;extreme republican director against his old colleagues on the 30thPrairial; he now became a royalist director against the government of theyear III.

The faction disconcerted by the 18th Fructidor and the peace of theContinent, had also gained courage. The military successes of the newcoalition, the law of compulsory loans and that of hostages, which hadcompelled every emigrant family to give guarantees to government, had madethe royalists of the south and west again take up arms. They reappeared inbands, which daily became more formidable, and revived the petty butdisastrous warfare of the Chouans. They awaited the arrival of theRussians, and looked forward to the speedy restoration of the monarchy.This was a moment of fresh competition with every party. Each aspired tothe inheritance of the dying constitution, as they had done at the closeof the convention. In France, people are warned by a kind of politicalodour that a government is dying, and all parties rush to be in at thedeath.

Fortunately for the republic, the war changed its aspect on the twoprincipal frontiers of the Upper and Lower Rhine. The allies, after havingacquired Italy, wished to enter France by Switzerland and Holland; butgenerals Masséna and Brune arrested their hitherto victorious progress.Masséna advanced against Korsakov and Suvorov. During twelve days of greatcombinations and consecutive victories, hastening in turns from Constanceto Zurich, he repelled the efforts of the Russians, forced them toretreat, and disorganized the coalition. Brune also defeated the duke ofYork in Holland, obliged him to re-embark, and to renounce his attemptedinvasion. The army of Italy alone had been less fortunate. It had lost itsgeneral, Joubert, killed at the battle of Novi, while leading a charge onthe Austro-Russians. But this frontier, which was at a distance from thecentre of action, despite the defeat of Novi, was not crossed, andChampionnet ably defended it. It was soon to be repassed by the republicantroops, who, after each resumption of arms, having been for a momentbeaten, soon regained their superiority and recommenced their victories.Europe, by giving additional exercise to the military power, by itsrepeated attacks, rendered it each time more triumphant.

But at home nothing was changed. Divisions, discontent, and anxiety werethe same as before. The struggle between the moderate republicans and theextreme republicans had become more determined. Sieyès pursued hisprojects against the latter. In the Champ-de-Mars, on the 10th of August,he assailed the Jacobins. Lucien Bonaparte, who had much influence in thecouncil of five hundred, from his character, his talents, and the militaryimportance of the conqueror of Italy and of Egypt, drew in that assembly afearful picture of the reign of terror, and said that France wasthreatened with its return. About the same time, Sieyès caused Bernadotteto be dismissed, and Fouché, in concert with him, closed the meetings ofthe Manège. The multitude, to whom it is only necessary to present thephantom of the past to inspire it with fear, sided with the moderateparty, dreading the return of the reign of terror; and the extremerepublicans failed in their endeavour to declare _la patrie en danger_, asthey had done at the close of the legislative assembly. But Sieyès, afterhaving lost Joubert, sought for a general who could enter into hisdesigns, and who would protect the republic, without becoming itsoppressor. Hoche had been dead more than a year. Moreau had given rise tosuspicion by his equivocal conduct to the directory before the 18thFructidor, and by the sudden denunciation of his old friend Pichegru,whose treason he had kept secret for a whole year; Masséna was not apolitical general; Bernadotte and Jourdan were devoted to the party of theManège; Sieyès was compelled to postpone his scheme for want of a suitableagent.

Bonaparte had learned in the east, from his brother Lucien and a few otherfriends, the state of affairs in France, and the decline of thedirectorial government. His expedition had been brilliant, but withoutresults. After having defeated the Mamelukes, and ruined their power inUpper and Lower Egypt, he had advanced into Syria; but the failure of thesiege of Acre had compelled him to return to his first conquest. There,after defeating an Ottoman army on the coast of Aboukir, so fatal to theFrench fleet the preceding year, he decided on leaving that land of exileand fame, in order to turn the new crisis in France to his own elevation.He left general Kléber to command the army of the east, and crossed theMediterranean, then covered with English ships, in a frigate. Hedisembarked at Fréjus, on the 7th Vendémiaire, year VIII. (9th October,1799), nineteen days after the battle of Berghen, gained by Brune over theAnglo-Russians under the duke of York, and fourteen days after that ofZurich, gained by Masséna over the Austro-Russians under Korsakov andSuvorov. He traversed France, from the shore of the Mediterranean toParis, in triumph. His expedition, almost fabulous, had struck the publicmind with surprise, and had still more increased the great renown he hadacquired by the conquest of Italy. These two enterprises had raised himabove all the other generals of the republic. The distance of the theatreupon which he had fought enabled him to begin his career of independenceand authority. A victorious general, an acknowledged and obeyednegotiator, a creator of republics, he had treated all interests withskill, all creeds with moderation. Preparing afar off his ambitiousdestiny, he had not made himself subservient to any system, and hadmanaged all parties so as to work his elevation with their assent. He hadentertained this idea of usurpation since his victories in Italy. On the18th Fructidor, had the directory been conquered by the councils, hepurposed marching against the latter with his army and seizing theprotectorate of the republic. After the 18th Fructidor; finding thedirectory too powerful, and the inactivity of the continent too dangerousfor him, he accepted the expedition to Egypt, that he might not fall, andmight not be forgotten. At the news of the disorganization of thedirectory, on the 30th Prairial, he repaired with haste to the scene ofevents.

His arrival excited the enthusiasm of the moderate masses of the nation.He received general congratulations, and every party contended for hisfavour. Generals, directors, deputies, and even the republicans of theManège, waited on and tried to sound him. Fêtes and banquets were given inhis honour. His manners were grave, simple, cool, and observing; he hadalready a tone of condescending familiarity and involuntary habits ofcommand. Notwithstanding his want of earnestness and openness, he had anair of self-possession, and it was easy to read in him an after-thought ofconspiracy. Without uttering his design, he allowed it to be guessed;because a thing must always be expected in order to be accomplished. Hecould not seek supporters in the republicans of the Manège, as theyneither wished for a coup-d'état nor for a dictator; and Sieyès fearedthat he was too ambitious to fall in with his constitutional views. HenceSieyès hesitated to open his mind to Bonaparte, but, urged by their mutualfriends, they at length met and concerted together. On the 15th Brumaire,they determined on their plan of attack on the constitution of the yearIII, Sieyès undertook to prepare the councils by the _commissions ofinspectors,_ who placed unlimited confidence in him. Bonaparte was to gainthe generals and the different corps of troops stationed in Paris, whodisplayed much enthusiasm for him and much attachment to his person. Theyagreed to convoke an extraordinary meeting of the moderate members of thecouncils, to describe the public danger to the Ancients, and by urging theascendancy of Jacobinism to demand the removal of the legislative body toSaint-Cloud, and the appointment of general Bonaparte to the command ofthe armed force, as the only man able to save the country; and then, bymeans of the new military power, to obtain the dismissal of the directory,and the temporary dissolution of the legislative body. The enterprise wasfixed for the morning of the 18th Brumaire (9th November).

During these three days, the secret was faithfully kept, Barras, Moulins,and Gohier, who formed the majority of the directory, of which Gohier wasthen president, might have frustrated the coup-d'état of the conspiratorsby forestalling them, as on the 18th Fructidor. But they gave them creditfor hopes only, and not for any decided projects. On the morning of the18th, the members of the ancients were convoked in an unusual way by the_inspectors;_ they repaired to the Tuileries, and the debate was openedabout seven in the morning under the presidentship of Lemercier. Cornudet,Lebrun, and Fargues, the three most influential conspirators in thecouncil, drew a most alarming picture of the state of public affairs;protesting that the Jacobins were flocking in crowds to Paris from all thedepartments; that they wished to re-establish the revolutionarygovernment, and that a reign of terror would once more desolate therepublic, if the council had not the courage and wisdom to prevent itsreturn. Another conspirator, Régnier de la Meurthe, required of theancients already moved, that in virtue of the right conferred on them bythe constitution, they should transfer the legislative body to SaintCloud, and depute Bonaparte, nominated by them to the command of the 17thmilitary division, to superintend the removal. Whether all the members ofthe council were accomplices of this manoeuvre, or whether they wereterrified by so hasty convocation, and by speeches so alarming, theyinstantly granted what the conspirators required.

Bonaparte awaited with impatience the result of this deliberation, at hishouse in the Rue Chantereine; he was surrounded by generals, by Lefèvre,the commander of the guard of the directory, and by three regiments ofcavalry which he was about to review. The decree of the council ofancients was passed about eight, and brought to him at half-past eight bya state messenger. He received the congratulations of all around him; theofficers drew their swords as a sign of fidelity. He put himself at theirhead, and they marched to the Tuileries; he appeared at the bar of theancients, took the oath of fidelity, and appointed as his lieutenant,Lefèvre, chief of the directorial guard.

This was, however, only a beginning of success. Bonaparte was at the headof the armed force; but the executive power of the directory and thelegislative power of the councils still existed. In the struggle whichwould infallibly ensue, it was not certain that the great and hithertovictorious force of the revolution would not triumph. Sieyès and RogerDucos went from the Luxembourg to the legislative and military camp of theTuileries, and gave in their resignation. Barras, Moulins, and Gohier,apprised on their side, but a little too late, of what was going on,wished to employ their power and make themselves sure of their guard; butthe latter, having received from Bonaparte information of the decree ofthe ancients, refused to obey them. Barras, discouraged, sent in hisresignation, and departed for his estate of Gros-Bois. The directory was,in fact, dissolved; and there was one antagonist less in the struggle. Thefive hundred and Bonaparte alone remained opposed.

The decree of the council of ancients and the proclamations of Bonapartewere placarded on the walls of Paris. The agitation which accompaniesextraordinary events prevailed in that great city. The republicans, andnot without reason, felt serious alarm for the fate of liberty. But whenthey showed alarm respecting the intentions of Bonaparte, in whom theybeheld a Caesar, or a Cromwell, they were answered in the general's ownwords: "_Bad parts, worn out parts, unworthy a man of sense, even if theywere not so of a good man. It would be sacrilege to attack representativegovernment in this age of intelligence and freedom. He would be but a foolwho, with lightness of heart, could wish to cause the loss of the stakesof the republic against royalty after having supported them with someglory and peril_." Yet the importance he gave himself in his proclamationswas ominous. He reproached the directory with the situation of France in amost extraordinary way. "What have you done," said he, "with that Francewhich I left so flourishing in your hands? I left you peace, I find you atwar; I left you victories, I find nothing but reverses; I left you themillions of Italy, I find nothing but plundering laws and misery. Whathave you done with the hundred thousand Frenchmen whom I knew, mycompanions in glory? They are dead! This state of things cannot last; inless than three years it would lead us to despotism." This was the firsttime for ten years that a man had ventured to refer everything to himself;and to demand an account of the republic, as of his own property. It is apainful surprise to see a new comer of the revolution introduce himselfthus into the inheritance, so laboriously acquired, of an entire people.

On the 19th Brumaire the members of the councils repaired to Saint Cloud;Sieyès and Roger Ducos accompanied Bonaparte to this new field of battle;they went thither with the intention of supporting the designs of theconspirators; Sieyès, who understood the tactics of revolution, wished tomake sure of events by provisionally arresting the leaders, and onlyadmitting the moderate party into the councils; but Bonaparte refused toaccede to this. He was no party man; having hitherto acted and conqueredwith regiments only, he thought he could direct legislative councils likean army, by the word of command. The gallery of Mars had been prepared forthe ancients, the Orangery for the five hundred. A considerable armedforce surrounded the seat of the legislature, as the multitude, on the 2ndof June, had surrounded the convention. The republicans, assembled ingroups in the grounds, waited the opening of the sittings; they wereagitated with a generous indignation against the military brutalism thatthreatened them, and communicated to each other their projects ofresistance. The young general, followed by a few grenadiers, passedthrough the courts and apartments, and prematurely yielding to hischaracter, he said, like the twentieth king of a dynasty: "_I will have nomore factions: there must be an end to this; I absolutely will not haveany more of it_," About two o'clock in the afternoon, the councilsassembled in their respective halls, to the sound of instruments whichplayed the _Marseillaise_.

As soon as the business of the sitting commenced, Emile Gaudin, one of theconspirators, ascended the tribune of the five hundred. He proposed a voteof thanks to the council of ancients for the measures it had taken, and torequest it to expound the means of saving the republic. This motion wasthe signal for a violent tumult; cries arose against Gaudin from everypart of the hall. The republican deputies surrounded the tribune and thebureau, at which Lucien Bonaparte presided. The conspirators Cabanis,Boulay (de la Meurthe), Chazal, Gaudin, etc., turned pale on their seats.After a long scene of agitation, during which no one could obtain ahearing, calm was restored for a few moments, and Delbred proposed thatthe oath made to the constitution of the year III. should be renewed. Asno one opposed this motion, which at such a juncture was of vitalimportance, the oath was taken with an enthusiasm and unanimity which wasdangerous to the conspiracy.

Bonaparte, learning what had passed in the five hundred, and in thegreatest danger of desertion and defeat, presented himself at the councilof ancients. All would have been lost for him, had the latter, in favourof the conspiracy, been carried away by the enthusiasm of the youngercouncil. "Representatives of the people," said he, "you are in no ordinarysituation; you stand on a volcano. Yesterday, when you summoned me toinform me of the decree for your removal, and charged me with itsexecution, I was tranquil. I immediately assembled my comrades; we flew toyour aid! Well, now I am overwhelmed with calumnies! They talk of Caesar,Cromwell, and military government! Had I wished to oppress the liberty ofmy country, I should not have attended to the orders which you gave me; Ishould not have had any occasion to receive this authority from yourhands. Representatives of the people! I swear to you that the country hasnot a more zealous defender than I am; but its safety rests with youalone! There is no longer a government; four of the directors have givenin their resignation; the fifth (Moulins) has been placed undersurveillance for his own security; the council of five hundred is divided;nothing is left but the council of ancients. Let it adopt measures; let itbut speak; I am ready to execute. Let us save liberty! let us saveequality!" Linglet, a republican, then arose and said: "General, weapplaud what you say: swear with us to obey the constitution of the yearIII., which alone can maintain the republic." All would have been lost forhim had this motion met with the same reception which it had found in thefive hundred. It surprised the council, and for a moment Bonaparte wasdisconcerted. But he soon resumed: "The constitution of the year III. hasceased to exist; you violated it on the 18th Fructidor; you violated it onthe 22nd Floréal; you violated it on the 30th Prairial. The constitutionis invoked by all factions, and violated by all; it cannot be a means ofsafety for us, because it no longer obtains respect from any one; theconstitution being violated, we must have another compact, newguarantees." The council applauded these reproaches of Bonaparte, and rosein sign of approbation.

Bonaparte, deceived by his easy success with the ancients, imagined thathis presence alone would suffice to appease the stormy council of the fivehundred. He hastened thither at the head of a few grenadiers, whom he leftat the door, but within the hall, and he advanced alone, hat in hand. Atthe sight of the bayonets, the assembly arose with a sudden movement. Thelegislators, conceiving his entrance to be a signal for military violence,uttered all at once the cry of "Outlaw him! Down with the dictator!"Several members rushed to meet him, and the republican, Bigonet, seizinghim by the arm, exclaimed, "Rash man! what are you doing? Retire; you areviolating the sanctuary of the laws." Bonaparte, pale and agitated,receded, and was carried off by the grenadiers who had escorted him there.

His disappearance did not put a stop to the agitation of the council. Allthe members spoke at once, all proposed measures of public safety anddefence. Lucien Bonaparte was the object of general reproach; he attemptedto justify his brother, but with timidity. After a long struggle, hesucceeded in reaching the tribune, and urged the assembly to judge hisbrother with less severity. He protested that he had no design againsttheir liberty; and recalled his services. But several voices immediatelyexclaimed: "He has lost all their merit; down with the dictator! down withthe tyrants!" The tumult now became more violent than ever; and alldemanded the outlawry of general Bonaparte. "What," said Lucien, "do youwish me to pronounce the outlawry of my brother?" "Yes! yes! outlawry! itis the reward of tyrants!" In the midst of the confusion, a motion wasmade and put to the vote that the council should sit permanently; that itshould instantly repair to its palace at Paris; that the troops assembledat Saint Cloud should form a part of the guard of the legislative body;that the command of them should be given to general Bernadotte. Lucien,astounded by these propositions, and by the outlawry, which he thought hadbeen adopted with the rest, left the president's chair, and ascending thetribune, said, in the greatest agitation: "Since I cannot be heard in thisassembly, I put off the symbols of the popular magistracy with a deepsense of insulted dignity." And he took off his cap, robe, and scarf.

Bonaparte, meantime, on leaving the council of the five hundred, had foundsome difficulty in regaining his composure. Unaccustomed to scenes ofpopular tumult, he had been greatly agitated. His officers came aroundhim; and Sieyès, having more revolutionary experience, besought him not tolose time, and to employ force. General Lefèvre immediately gave an orderfor carrying off Lucien from the council. A detachment entered the hall,advanced to the chair which Lucien now occupied again, placed him in theirranks, and returned with him to the troops. As soon as Lucien came out, hemounted a horse by his brother's side, and although divested of his legalcharacter, harangued the troops as president. In concert with Bonaparte,he invented the story, so often repeated since, that poignards had beendrawn on the general in the council of five hundred, and exclaimed:"Citizen soldiers, the president of the council of five hundred declaresto you that the large majority of that council is at this moment kept infear by the daggers of a few representatives, who surround the tribune,threaten their colleagues with death, and occasion the most terribledeliberations. General, and you, soldiers and citizens, you will onlyrecognise as legislators of France those who follow me. As for those whoremain in the Orangery, let force expel them. Those brigands are no longerrepresentatives of the people, but representatives of the poignard." Afterthis violent appeal, addressed to the troops by a conspirator president,who, as usual, calumniated those he wished to proscribe, Bonaparte spoke:"Soldiers," said he, "I have led you to victory; may I rely on you?"--"Yes! yes! Vive le Général!"--"Soldiers, there were reasons for expectingthat the council of five hundred would save the country; on the contrary,it is given up to intestine quarrels; agitators seek to excite it againstme. Soldiers, may I rely on you?" "Yes! yes! Vive Bonaparte." "Well,then, I will bring them to their senses!" And he instantly gave orders tothe officers surrounding him to clear the hall of the five hundred.

The council, after Lucien's departure, had been a prey to great anxietyand indecision. A few members proposed that they should leave the place ina body, and go to Paris to seek protection amidst the people. Otherswished the national representatives not to forsake their post, but tobrave the outrages of force. In the meantime, a troop of grenadiersentered the hall by degrees, and the officer in command informed thecouncil that they should disperse. The deputy Prudhon reminded the officerand his soldiers of the respect due to the representatives of the people;general Jourdan also represented to them the enormity of such a measure.For a moment the troops hesitated; but a reinforcement now arrived inclose column. General Leclerc exclaimed: "In the name of generalBonaparte, the legislative body is dissolved; let all good citizensretire. Grenadiers, forward!" Cries of indignation arose from every side;but these were drowned by the drums. The grenadiers advanced slowly acrossthe whole width of the Orangery, and presenting bayonets. In this way theydrove the legislators before them, who continued shouting, "Vive larépublique!" as they left the place. At half-past five, on the 19thBrumaire of the year VIII. (10th November, 1799) there was no longer arepresentation.

Thus this violation of the law, this coup-d'état against liberty wasaccomplished. Force began to sway. The 18th of Brumaire was the 31st ofMay of the army against the representation, except that it was notdirected against a party, but against the popular power. But it is just todistinguish the 18th Brumaire from its consequences. It might then besupposed that the army was only an auxiliary of the revolution as it hadbeen on the 13th Vendémiaire and the 18th Fructidor, and that thisindispensable change would not turn to the advantage of a man--a singleman, who would soon change France into a regiment, and cause nothing to beheard of in a world hitherto agitated by so great a moral commotion, savethe tread of his army, and the voice of his will.

THE CONSULATE

CHAPTER XIV

FROM THE 18TH BRUMAIRE (9TH OF NOVEMBER, 1799) TO THE 2ND OF DECEMBER,1804

The 18th Brumaire had immense popularity. People did not perceive in thisevent the elevation of a single man above the councils of the nation; theydid not see in it the end of the great movement of the 14th of July, whichhad commenced the national existence.

The 18th Brumaire assumed an aspect of hope and restoration. Although thenation was much exhausted, and little capable of supporting a sovereigntyoppressive to it, and which had even become the object of its ridicule,since the lower class had exercised it, yet it considered despotism soimprobable, that no one seemed to it to be in a condition to reduce it toa state of subjection. All felt the need of being restored by a skilfulhand, and Bonaparte, as a great man and a victorious general, seemedsuited for the task.

On this account almost every one, except the directorial republicans,declared in favour of the events of that day. Violation of the laws andcoups-d'état had occurred so frequently during the revolution, that peoplehad become accustomed no longer to judge them by their legality, but bytheir consequences. From the party of Sieyès down to the royalists of1788, every one congratulated himself on the 18th Brumaire, and attributedto himself the future political advantages of this change. The moderateconstitutionalists believed that definitive liberty would be established;the royalists fed themselves with hope by inappropriately comparing thisepoch of our revolution with the epoch of 1660 in the English revolution,with the hope that Bonaparte was assuming the part of Monk, and that hewould soon restore the monarchy of the Bourbons; the mass, possessinglittle intelligence, and desirous of repose, relied on the return of orderunder a powerful protector; the proscribed classes and ambitious menexpected from him their amnesty or elevation. During the three monthswhich followed the 18th Brumaire, approbation and expectation weregeneral. A provisional government had been appointed, composed of threeconsuls, Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Roger Ducos, with two legislativecommissioners, entrusted to prepare the constitution and a definitiveorder of things.

The consuls and the two commissioners were installed on the 21st Brumaire.This provisional government abolished the law respecting hostages andcompulsory loans; it permitted the return of the priests proscribed sincethe 18th Fructidor; it released from prison and sent out of the republicthe emigrants who had been shipwrecked on the coast of Calais, and who forfour years were captives in France, and were exposed to the heavypunishment of the emigrant army. All these measures were very favourablyreceived. But public opinion revolted at a proscription put in forceagainst the extreme republicans. Thirty-six of them were sentenced totransportation to Guiana, and twenty-one were put under surveillance inthe department of Charante-Inférieure, merely by a decree of the consulson the report of Fouché, minister of police. The public viewedunfavourably all who attacked the government; but at the same time itexclaimed against an act so arbitrary and unjust. The consuls,accordingly, recoiled before their own act; they first commutedtransportation into surveillance, and soon withdrew surveillance itself.

It was not long before a rupture broke out between the authors of the 18thBrumaire. During their provisional authority, it did not create muchnoise, because it took place in the legislative commissions. The newconstitution was the cause of it. Sieyès and Bonaparte could not agree onthis subject: the former wished to institute France, the latter to governit as a master.

The constitution of Sieyès, which was distorted in the consularconstitution of the year VIII., deserves to be known, were it only in thelight of a legislative curiosity. Sieyès distributed France into threepolitical divisions; the commune, the province or department, and theState. Each had its own powers of administration and judicature, arrangedin hierarchical order: the first, the municipalities and _tribunaux depaix_ and _de premiere instance;_ the second, the popular prefectures andcourts of appeal; the third, the central government and the court ofcassation. To fill the functions of the commune, the department, and theState, there were three budgets of _notability_, the members of which wereonly candidates nominated by the people.

The executive power was vested in the _proclamateur-électeur_, a superiorfunctionary, perpetual, without responsibility, deputed to represent thenation without, and to form the government in a deliberating state-counciland a responsible ministry. The _proclamateur-électeur_ selected from thelists of candidates, judges, from the tribunals of peace to the court ofcassation; administrators, from the mayors to the ministers. But he wasincapable of governing himself; power was directed by the state council,exercised by the ministry.

The legislature departed from the form hitherto established; it ceased tobe a deliberative assembly to become a judicial court. Before it, thecouncil of state, in the name of the government, and the _tribunat_, inthe name of the people, pleaded their respective projects. Its sentencewas law. It would seem that the object of Sieyès was to put a stop to theviolent usurpations of party, and while placing the sovereignty in thepeople, to give it limits in itself: this design appears from thecomplicated works of his political machine. The primary assemblies,composed of the tenth of the general population, nominated the local _listof communal candidates_; electoral colleges, also nominated by them,selected from the _communal list_ the superior list of provincialcandidates and from the _provincial list_, the list of nationalcandidates. In all which concerned the government, there was a reciprocalcontrol. The proclamateur-électeur selected his functionaries from amongthe candidates nominated by the people: and the people could dismissfunctionaries, by not keeping them on the lists of candidates, which wererenewed, the first every two years, the second every five years, the thirdevery ten years. But the proclamateur-électeur did not interfere in thenomination of tribunes and legislators, whose attributes were purelypopular.

Yet, to place a counterpoise in the heart of this authority itself, Sieyèsseparated the initiative and the discussion of the law, which was investedin the tribunate from its adoption, which belonged to the legislativeassembly. But besides these different prerogatives, the legislative bodyand the tribunate were not elected in the same manner. The tribunate wascomposed by right of the first hundred members of the _national list_,while the legislative body was chosen directly by the electoral colleges.The tribunes, being necessarily more active, bustling, and popular, wereappointed for life, and by a protracted process, to prevent their arrivingin a moment of passion, with destructive and angry projects, as hadhitherto been the case in most of the assemblies. The same dangers notexisting in the other assembly, which had only to judge calmly anddisinterestedly of the law, its election was direct, and its authoritytransient.

Lastly, there existed, as the complement of all the other powers, aconservatory body, incapable of ordering, incapable of acting, intendedsolely to provide for the regular existence of the state. This body wasthe constitutional jury, or conservatory senate; it was to be for thepolitical law what the court of cassation was to the civil law. Thetribunate, or the council of state, appealed to it when the sentence ofthe legislative body was not conformable to the constitution. It had alsothe faculty of calling into its own body any leader of the government whowas too ambitious, or a tribune who was too popular, by the "droitd'absorption," and when senators, they were disqualified from filling anyother function. In this way it kept a double watch over the safety of thewhole republic, by maintaining the fundamental law, and protecting libertyagainst the ambition of individuals.

Whatever may be thought of this constitution, which seems too finelycomplicated to be practicable, it must be granted that it is theproduction of considerable strength of mind, and even great practicalinformation. Sieyès paid too little regard to the passions of men; he madethem too reasonable as human beings, and too obedient as machines. Hewished by skilful inventions to avoid the abuses of human constitutions,and excluded death, that is to say, despotism, from whatever quarter itmight come. But I have very little faith in the efficacy of constitutions;in such moments, I believe only in the strength of parties in theirdomination, and, from time to time, in their reconciliation. But I mustalso admit that, if ever a constitution was adapted to a period, it wasthat of Sieyès for France in the year VIII.

After an experience of ten years, which had only shown exclusivedominations, after the violent transition from the constitutionalists of1789 to the Girondists, from the Girondists to the Mountain, from theMountain to the reactionists, from the reactionists to the directory, fromthe directory to the councils, from the councils to the military force,there could be no repose or public life save in it. People were weary ofworn-out constitutions; that of Sieyès was new; exclusive men were nolonger wanted, and by elaborate voting it prevented the sudden accessionof counter-revolutionists, as at the beginning of the directory, or ofardent democrats, as at the end of this government. It was a constitutionof moderate men, suited to terminate a revolution, and to settle a nation.But precisely because it was a constitution of moderate men, preciselybecause parties had no longer sufficient ardour to demand a law ofdomination, for that very reason there would necessarily be found a manstronger than the fallen parties and the moderate legislators, who wouldrefuse this law, or, accepting, abuse it, and this was what happened.

Bonaparte took part in the deliberations of the constituent committee;with his instinct of power, he seized upon everything in the ideas ofSieyès which was calculated to serve his projects, and caused the rest tobe rejected. Sieyès intended for him the functions of grand elector, witha revenue of six millions of francs, and a guard of three thousand men;the palace of Versailles for a residence, and the entire externalrepresentation of the republic. But the actual government was to beinvested in a consul for war and a consul for peace, functionariesunthought of by Sieyès in the year III., but adopted by him in the yearVIII.; in order, no doubt, to suit the ideas of the times. Thisinsignificant magistracy was far from suiting Bonaparte. "How could yousuppose," said he, "that a man of any talent and honour could resignhimself to the part of fattening like a hog, on a few millions a year?"From that moment it was not again mentioned; Roger Ducos, and the greaterpart of the committee, declared in favour of Bonaparte; and Sieyès, whohated discussion, was either unwilling or unable to defend his ideas. Hesaw that laws, men, and France itself were at the mercy of the man whoseelevation he had promoted.

On the 24th of December, 1799 (Nivôse, year VIII.), forty-five days afterthe 18th Brumaire, was published the constitution of the year VIII.; itwas composed of the wrecks of that of Sieyès, now become a constitution ofservitude. The government was placed in the hands of the first consul, whowas supported by two others, having a deliberative voice. The senate,primarily selected by the consuls, chose the members of the tribunal andlegislative body, from the list of the national candidates. The governmentalone had the initiative in making the laws. Accordingly, there were nomore bodies of electors who appointed the candidates of different lists,the tribunes and legislators; no more independent tribunes earnestlypleading the cause of the people before the legislative assembly; nolegislative assembly arising directly from the bosom of the nation, andaccountable to it alone--in a word, no political nation. Instead of allthis, there existed an all-powerful consul, disposing of armies and ofpower, a general and a dictator; a council of state destined to be theadvanced guard of usurpation; and lastly, a senate of eighty members,whose only function was to nullify the people, and to choose tribuneswithout authority, and legislators who should remain mute. Life passedfrom the nation to the government. The constitution of Sieyès served as apretext for a bad order of things. It is worth notice that up to the yearVIII. all the constitutions had emanated from the _Contrat-social_, andsubsequently, down to 1814, from the constitution of Sieyès.

The new government was immediately installed. Bonaparte was first consul,and he united with him as second and third consuls, Cambacérès, a lawyer,and formerly a member of the Plain in the convention, and Lebrun, formerlya co-adjutor of the chancellor Maupeou. By their means, he hoped toinfluence the revolutionists and moderate royalists. With the same object,an ex-noble, Talleyrand, and a former member of the Mountain, Fouché, wereappointed to the posts of minister of foreign affairs, and minister ofpolice. Sieyès felt much repugnance at employing Fouché; but Bonapartewished it. "We are forming a new epoch," said he; "we must forget all theill of the past, and remember only the good." He cared very little underwhat banner men had hitherto served, provided they now enlisted under his,and summoned thither their old associates in royalism and in revolution.

The two new consuls and the retiring consuls nominated sixty senators,without waiting for the lists of eligibility; the senators appointed ahundred tribunes and three hundred legislators; and the authors of the18th Brumaire distributed among themselves the functions of the state, asthe booty of their victory. It is, however, just to say that the moderateliberal party prevailed in this partition, and that, as long as itpreserved any influence, Bonaparte governed in a mild, advantageous, andrepublican manner. The constitution of the year VIII., submitted to thepeople for acceptance, was approved by three millions eleven thousand andseven citizens. That of 1793 had obtained one million eight hundred andone thousand nine hundred and eighteen suffrages; and that of the yearIII. one million fifty-seven thousand three hundred and ninety. The newlaw satisfied the moderate masses, who sought tranquillity, rather thanguarantees; while the code of '93 had only found partisans among the lowerclass; and that of the year III. had been equally rejected by theroyalists and democrats. The constitution of 1791 alone had obtainedgeneral approbation; and, without having been subjected to individualacceptance, had been sworn to by all France.

The first consul, in compliance with the wishes of the republic, madeoffers of peace to England, which it refused. He naturally wished toassume an appearance of moderation, and, previous to treating, to conferon his government the lustre of new victories. The continuance of the warwas therefore decided on, and the consuls made a remarkable proclamation,in which they appealed to sentiments new to the nation. Hitherto it hadbeen called to arms in defence of liberty; now they began to excite it inthe name of honour: "Frenchmen, you wish for peace. Your governmentdesires it with still more ardour: its foremost hopes, its constantefforts, have been in favour of it. The English ministry rejects it; theEnglish ministry has betrayed the secret of its horrible policy. To rendFrance, to destroy its navy and ports, to efface it from the map ofEurope, or reduce it to the rank of a secondary power, to keep the nationsof the continent at variance, in order to seize on the commerce of all,and enrich itself by their spoils: these are the fearful successes forwhich England scatters its gold, lavishes its promises, and multiplies itsintrigues. It is in your power to command peace; but, to command it,money, the sword, and soldiers are necessary; let all, then, hasten to paythe tribute they owe to their common defence. Let our young citizensarise! No longer will they take arms for factions, or for the choice oftyrants, but for the security of all they hold most dear; for the honourof France, and for the sacred interests of humanity."

Holland and Switzerland had been sheltered during the preceding campaign.The first consul assembled all his force on the Rhine and the Alps. Hegave Moreau the command of the army of the Rhine, and he himself marchedinto Italy. He set out on the 16th Floréal, year VIII. (6th of May, 1800)for that brilliant campaign which lasted only forty days. It was importantthat he should not be long absent from Paris at the beginning of hispower, and especially not to leave the war in a state of indecision.Field-marshal Mélas had a hundred and thirty thousand men under arms; heoccupied all Italy. The republican army opposed to him only amounted toforty thousand men. He left the field-marshal lieutenant Ott with thirtythousand men before Genoa; and marched against the corps of generalSuchet. He entered Nice, prepared to pass the Var, and to enter Provence.It was then that Bonaparte crossed the great Saint Bernard at the head ofan army of forty thousand men, descended into Italy in the rear of Mélas,entered Milan on the 16th Prairial (2nd of June), and placed the Austriansbetween Suchet and himself. Mélas, whose line of operation was broken,quickly fell back upon Nice, and from thence on to Turin; he establishedhis headquarters at Alessandria, and decided on re-opening hiscommunications by a battle. On the 9th of June, the advance guard of therepublicans gained a glorious victory at Monte-Bello, the chief honour ofwhich belonged to general Lannes. But it was the plain of Marengo, on the14th of June (25th Prairial) that decided the fate of Italy; the Austrianswere overwhelmed. Unable to force the passage of the Bormida by a victory,they were placed without any opportunity of retreat between the army ofSuchet and that of the first consul. On the 15th, they obtained permissionto fall behind Mantua, on condition of restoring all the places ofPiedmont, Lombardy, and the Legations; and the victory of Marengo thussecured possession of all Italy.

Eighteen days after, Bonaparte returned to Paris. He was received with allthe evidence of admiration that such decided victories and prodigiousactivity could excite; the enthusiasm was universal. There was aspontaneous illumination, and the crowd hurried to the Tuileries to seehim. The hope of speedy peace redoubled the public joy. On the 25thMessidor the first consul was present at the anniversary fête of the 14thof July. When the officers presented him the standards taken from theenemy, he said to them: "When you return to your camps, tell your soldiersthat the French people, on the 1st Vendemiaire, when we shall celebratethe anniversary of the republic, will expect either the proclamation ofpeace, or, if the enemy raise insuperable obstacles, further standards asthe result of new victories." Peace, however, was delayed for some time.

In the interim between the victory of Marengo and the generalpacification, the first consul turned his attention chiefly to settlingthe people, and to diminishing the number of malcontents, by employing thedisplaced factions in the state. He was very conciliatory to those partieswho renounced their systems, and very lavish of favours to those chiefswho renounced their parties. As it was a time of selfishness andindifference, he had no difficulty in succeeding. The proscribed of the18th Fructidor were already recalled, with the exception of a few royalistconspirators, such as Pichegru, Willot, etc. Bonaparte soon even employedthose of the banished who, like Portalis, Siméon, Barbé-Marbois, had shownthemselves more anti-conventionalists than counter-revolutionists. He hadalso gained over opponents of another description. The late leaders of LaVendée, the famous Bernier, curé of Saint-Lo, who had assisted in thewhole insurrection, Châtillon, d'Autichamp and Suzannet had come to anarrangement by the treaty of Mont-Luçon (17th January, 1800). He alsoaddressed himself to the leaders of the Breton bands, Georges Cadoudal,Frotté, Laprévelaye, and Bourmont. The two last alone consented to submit.Frotté was surprised and shot; and Cadoudal defeated at Grand Champ, byGeneral Brune, capitulated. The western war was thus definitivelyterminated.

But the _Chouans_ who had taken refuge in England, and whose only hope wasin the death of him who now concentrated the power of the revolution,projected his assassination. A few of them disembarked on the coast ofFrance, and secretly repaired to Paris. As it was not easy to reach thefirst consul, they decided on a conspiracy truly horrible. On the thirdNivôse, at eight in the evening, Bonaparte was to go to the Opera by theRue Saint-Nicaise. The conspirators placed a barrel of powder on a littletruck, which obstructed the carriage way, and one of them, named SaintRegent, was to set fire to it as soon as he received a signal of the firstconsul's approach. At the appointed time, Bonaparte left the Tuileries,and crossed the Rue Nicaise. His coachman was skilful enough to driverapidly between the truck and the wall; but the match was already alight,and the carriage had scarcely reached the end of the street when _theinfernal machine_ exploded, covered the quarter of Saint-Nicaise withruins, shaking the carriage, and breaking its windows.

The police, taken by surprise, though directed by Fouché, attributed thisplot to the democrats, against whom the first consul had a much moredecided antipathy than against the _Chouans_. Many of them wereimprisoned, and a hundred and thirty were transported by a simple senatus-consultus asked and obtained during the night. At length they discoveredthe true authors of the conspiracy, some of whom were condemned to death.On this occasion, the consul caused the creation of special militarytribunals. The constitutional party separated still further from him, andbegan its energetic but useless opposition. Lanjuinais, Grégoire, who hadcourageously resisted the extreme party in the convention, Garat,Lambrechts, Lenoir-Laroche, Cabanis, etc., opposed, in the senate, theillegal proscription of a hundred and thirty democrats; and the tribunes,Isnard, Daunou, Chénier, Benjamin Constant, Bailleul, Chazal, etc.,opposed the special courts. But a glorious peace threw into the shade thisnew encroachment of power.

The Austrians, conquered at Marengo, and defeated in Germany by Moreau,determined on laying down arms; On the 8th of January, 1801, the republic,the cabinet of Vienna, and the empire, concluded the treaty of Lunéville.Austria ratified all the conditions of the treaty of Campo-Formio, andalso ceded Tuscany to the young duke of Parma. The empire recognised theindependence of the Batavian, Helvetian, Ligurian, and Cisalpinerepublics. The pacification soon became general, by the treaty of Florence(18th of February 1801,) with the king of Naples, who ceded the isle ofElba and the principality of Piombino, by the treaty of Madrid (29th ofSeptember, 1801) with Portugal; by the treaty of Paris (8th of October,1801) with the emperor of Russia; and, lastly, by the preliminaries (9thof October, 1801) with the Ottoman Porte. The continent, by ceasinghostilities, compelled England to a momentary peace. Pitt, Dundas, andLord Grenville, who had maintained these sanguinary struggles with France,went out of office when their system ceased to be followed. The oppositionreplaced them; and, on the 25th of March, 1802, the treaty of Amienscompleted the pacification of the world. England consented to all thecontinental acquisitions of the French republic, recognised the existenceof the secondary republics, and restored our colonies.

During the maritime war with England, the French navy had been almostentirely ruined. Three hundred and forty ships had been taken ordestroyed, and the greater part of the colonies had fallen into the handsof the English. San Domingo, the most important of them all, afterthrowing off the yoke of the whites, had continued the Americanrevolution, which having commenced in the English colonies, was to end inthose of Spain, and change the colonies of the new world into independentstates. The blacks of San Domingo wished to maintain, with respect to themother country, the freedom which they had acquired from the colonists,and to defend themselves against the English. They were led by a man ofcolour, the famous Toussaint-L'Ouverture. France should have consented tothis revolution which had been very costly for humanity. The metropolitangovernment could no longer be restored at San Domingo; and it becamenecessary to obtain the only real advantages which Europe can now derivefrom America, by strengthening the commercial ties with our old colony.Instead of this prudent policy, Bonaparte attempted an expedition toreduce the island to subjection. Forty thousand men embarked for thisdisastrous enterprise. It was impossible for the blacks to resist such anarmy at first; but after the first victories, it was attacked by theclimate, and new insurrections secured the independence of the colony.France experienced the twofold loss of an army and of advantageouscommercial connexions.

Bonaparte, whose principal object hitherto had been to promote the fusionof parties, now turned all his attention to the internal prosperity of therepublic, and the organization of power. The old privileged classes of thenobility and the clergy had returned into the state without formingparticular classes. Dissentient priests, on taking an oath of obedience,might conduct their modes of worship and receive their pensions fromgovernment. An act of pardon had been passed in favour of those accused ofemigration; there only remained a list of about a thousand names of thosewho remained faithful to the family and the claims of the pretender. Thework of pacification was at an end. Bonaparte, knowing that the surest wayof commanding a nation is to promote its happiness, encouraged thedevelopment of industry, and favoured external commerce, which had so longbeen suspended. He united higher views with his political policy, andconnected his own glory with the prosperity of France; he travelledthrough the departments, caused canals and harbours to be dug, bridges tobe built, roads to be repaired, monuments to be erected, and means ofcommunication to be multiplied. He especially strove to become theprotector and legislator of private interests. The civil, penal, andcommercial codes, which he formed, whether at this period, or at a laterperiod, completed, in this respect, the work of the revolution, andregulated the internal existence of the nation, in a manner somewhat moreconformable to its real condition. Notwithstanding political despotism,France, during the domination of Bonaparte, had a private legislationsuperior to that of any European society; for with absolute government,most of them still preserved the civil condition of the middle-ages.General peace, universal toleration, the return of order, the restoration,and the creation of an administrative system, soon changed the appearanceof the republic. Attention was turned to the construction of roads andcanals. Civilization became developed in an extraordinary manner; and theconsulate was, in this respect, the perfected period of the directory,from its commencement to the 18th Fructidor.

It was more especially after the peace Amiens that Bonaparte raised thefoundation of his future power. He himself says, in the Memoirs publishedunder his name, [Footnote: _Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Francesous Napoléon, écrits à Sainte Hélène_, vol. i. p. 248.] "The ideas ofNapoleon were fixed, but to realise them he required the assistance oftime and circumstances. The organization of the consulate had nothing incontradiction with these; it accustomed the nation to unity, and that wasa first step. This step taken, Napoleon was indifferent to the forms anddenominations of the different constituted bodies. He was a stranger tothe revolution. It was his wisdom to advance from day to day, withoutdeviating from the fixed point, the polar star, which directed Napoleonhow to guide the revolution to the port whither he wished to conduct it."

In the beginning of 1802, he was at one and the same time forming threegreat projects, tending to the same end. He sought to organize religionand to establish the clergy, which as yet had only a religious existence;to create, by means of the Legation of Honour, a permanent military orderin the army; and to secure his own power, first for his life, and then torender it hereditary. Bonaparte was installed at the Tuileries, where hegradually resumed the customs and ceremonies of the old monarchy. He.already thought of placing intermediate bodies between himself and thepeople. For some time past he had opened a negotiation with Pope PiusVII., on matters of religious worship. The famous concordat, which creatednine archbishoprics, forty-one bishoprics, with the institution ofchapters, which established the clergy in the state, and again placed itunder the external monarchy of the pope, was signed at Paris on the 16thof July, 1801, and ratified at Rome on the 15th of August, 1801.

Bonaparte, who had destroyed the liberty of the press, created exceptionaltribunals, and who had departed more and more from the principles of therevolution, felt that before he went further it was necessary to breakentirely with the liberal party of the 18th Brumaire. In Ventôse, year X.(March, 1802), the most energetic of the tribunes were dismissed by asimple operation of the senate. The tribunate was reduced to eightymembers, and the legislative body underwent a similar purgation. About amonth after, the 15th Germinal (6th of April, 1802), Bonaparte, no longerapprehensive of opposition, submitted the concordat to these assemblies,whose obedience he had thus secured, for their acceptance. They adopted itby a great majority. The Sunday and four great religious festivals werere-established, and from that time the government ceased to observe thesystem of decades. This was the first attempt at renouncing the republicancalendar. Bonaparte hoped to gain the sacerdotal party, always mostdisposed to passive obedience, and thus deprive the royalist of theclergy, and the coalition of the pope.

The concordat was inaugurated with great pomp in the cathedral of Nôtre-Dame. The senate, the legislative body, the tribunate, and the leadingfunctionaries were present at this new ceremony. The first consul repairedthither in the carriages of the old court, with the etiquette andattendants of the old monarchy; salvos of artillery announced this returnof privilege, and this essay at royalty. A pontifical mass was performedby Caprara, the cardinal-legate, and the people were addressed byproclamation in a language to which they had long been unaccustomed."Reason and the example of ages," ran the proclamation, "command us tohave recourse to the sovereign pontiff to effect unison of opinion andreconciliation of hearts. The head of the church has weighed in his wisdomand for the interest of the church, propositions dictated by the interestof the state."

In the evening there was an illumination, and a concert in the gardens ofthe Tuileries. The soldiery reluctantly attended at the inaugurationceremony, and expressed their dissatisfaction aloud. On returning to thepalace, Bonaparte questioned general Delmas on the subject. "_What did youthink of the ceremony? _" said he. "_A fine mummery_" was the reply."_Nothing was wanting but a million of men slain, in destroying what youre-establish. _"

A month after, on the 25th Floréal, year X. (15th of May, 1802), hepresented the project of a law respecting _the creation of a legion ofhonour_. This legion was to be composed of fifteen cohorts, dignitariesfor life, disposed in hierarchical order, having a centre, anorganization, and revenues. The first consul was the chief of the legion.Each cohort was composed of seven grand officers, twenty commanders,thirty officers, and three hundred and fifty legionaries. Bonaparte'sobject was to originate a new nobility. He thus appealed to the ill-suppressed sentiment of inequality. While discussing this projected law inthe council of state, he did not scruple to announce his aristocraticdesign. Berlier, counsellor of state, having disapproved an institution soopposed to the spirit of the republic, said that: "Distinctions were theplaythings of a monarchy." "I defy you," replied the first consul, "toshow me a republic, ancient or modern, in which distinctions did notexist; you call them toys; well, it is by toys that men are led. I wouldnot say as much to a tribune; but in a council of wise men and statesmenwe may speak plainly. I do not believe that the French love _liberty andequality_. The French have not been changed by ten years of revolution;they have but one sentiment--_honour_. That sentiment, then, must benourished; they must have distinctions. See how the people prostratethemselves before the ribbons and stars of foreigners; they have beensurprised by them; and they do not fail to wear them. All has beendestroyed; the question is, how to restore all. There is a government,there are authorities; but the rest of the nation, what is it? Grains ofsand. Among us we have the old privileged classes, organized in principlesand interests, and knowing well what they want. I can count our enemies.But we, ourselves, are dispersed, without system, union, or contact. Aslong as I am here, I will answer for the republic; but we must provide forthe future. Do you think the republic is definitively established? If so,you are greatly deceived. It is in our power to make it so; but we havenot done it; and we shall not do it if we do not hurl some masses ofgranite on the soil of France." [Footnote: This passage is extracted fromM. Thibaudeau's _Mémoires_ of the Consulate. There are in these_Mémoires_, which are extremely curious, some political conversations ofBonaparte, details concerning his internal government and the principalsittings of the council of state, which throw much light upon this epoch.]By these words Bonaparte announced a system of government opposed to thatwhich the revolution sought to establish, and which the change in societydemanded.

Yet, notwithstanding the docility of the council of state, the purgationundergone by the tribunal and the legislative body, these three bodiesvigorously opposed a law which revived inequality. In the council ofstate, the legion of honour only had fourteen votes against ten; in thetribunal, thirty-eight against fifty-six; in the legislative body, ahundred and sixty-six against a hundred and ten. Public opinion manifesteda still greater repugnance for this new order of knighthood. Those firstinvested seemed almost ashamed of it, and received it with a sort ofcontempt. But Bonaparte pursued his counterrevolutionary course, withouttroubling himself about a dissatisfaction no longer capable of resistance.

He wished to confirm his power by the establishment of privilege, and toconfirm privilege by the duration of his power. On the motion of Chabot del'Allier, the tribunal resolved: "That the first consul, generalBonaparte, should receive a signal mark of national gratitude." Inpursuance of this resolution, on the 6th of May, 1802, an organic senatus-consultus appointed Bonaparte consul for an additional period of tenyears.

But Bonaparte did not consider the prolongation of the consulatesufficient; and two months after, on the 2nd of August, the senate, on thedecision of the tribunate and the legislative body, and with the consentof the people, consulted by means of the public registers, passed thefollowing decree:

"I. The French people nominate, and the senate proclaim Napoleon Bonapartefirst consul for life.

"II. A statue of Peace, holding in one hand a laurel of victory, and inthe other, the decree of the senate, shall attest to posterity thegratitude of the nation.

"III. The senate will convey to the first consul the expression of theconfidence, love, and admiration of the French people."

This revolution was complete by adapting to the consulship for life, by asimple senatus-consultus, the constitution, already sufficiently despotic,of the temporary consulship. "Senators," said Cornudet, on presenting thenew law, "we must for ever close the public path to the Gracchi. Thewishes of the citizens, with respect to the political laws they obey, areexpressed by the general prosperity; the guarantee of social rightsabsolutely places the dogma of the exercise of the sovereignty of thepeople in the senate, which is the bond of the nation. This is the onlysocial doctrine." The senate admitted this new social doctrine, tookpossession of the sovereignty, and held it as a deposit till a favourablemoment arrived for transferring it to Bonaparte.

The constitution of the 16th Thermidor, year X. (4th of August, 1802,)excluded the people from the state. The public and administrativefunctions became fixed, like those of the government. The first consulcould increase the number of electors who were elected for life. Thesenate had the right of changing institutions, suspending the functions ofthe jury, of placing the departments out of the constitution, of annullingthe sentences of the tribunals, of dissolving the legislative body, andthe tribunate. The council of state was reinforced; the tribunate, alreadyreduced by dismissals, was still sufficiently formidable to require to bereduced to fifty members.

Such, in the course of two years, was the terrible progress of privilegeand absolute power. Towards the close of 1802, everything was in the handsof the consul for life, who had a class devoted to him in the clergy; amilitary order in the legion of honour; an administrative body in thecouncil of state; a machinery for decrees in the legislative assembly; amachinery for the constitution in the senate. Not daring, as yet, todestroy the tribunate, in which assembly there arose, from time to time, afew words of freedom and opposition, he deprived it of its most courageousand eloquent members, that he might hear his will declared with docilityin all the assemblies of the nation.

This interior policy of usurpation was extended beyond the country. On the26th of August, Bonaparte united the island of Elba, and on the 11th ofSeptember, 1802, Piedmont, to the French territory. On the 9th of Octoberhe took possession of the states of Parma, left vacant by the death of theduke; and lastly, on the 21st of October, he marched into Switzerland anarmy of thirty thousand men, to support a federative act, which regulatedthe constitution of each canton, and which had caused disturbances. Hethus furnished a pretext for a rupture with England, which had notsincerely subscribed to the peace. The British cabinet had only felt thenecessity of a momentary suspension of hostilities; and, a short timeafter the treaty of Amiens, it arranged a third coalition, as it had doneafter the treaty of Campo-Formio, and at the time of the congress ofRastadt. The interest and situation of England were alone of a nature tobring about a rupture, which was hastened by the union of states effectedby Bonaparte, and the influence which he retained over the neighbouringrepublics, called to complete independence by the recent treaties.Bonaparte, on his part, eager for the glory gained on the field of battle,wishing to aggrandize France by conquests, and to complete his ownelevation by victories, could not rest satisfied with repose; he hadrejected liberty, and war became a necessity.

The two cabinets exchanged for some time very bitter diplomatic notes. Atlength, Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador, left Paris on the 25thFloréal, year XI. (13th of May, 1803). Peace was now definitively broken:preparations for war were made on both sides. On the 26th of May, theFrench troops entered the electorate of Hanover. The German empire, on thepoint of expiring, raised no obstacle. The emigrant Chouan party, whichhad taken no steps since the affair of the infernal machine and thecontinental peace, were encouraged by this return of hostilities. Theopportunity seemed favourable, and it formed in London, with the assent ofthe British cabinet, a conspiracy headed by Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal.The conspirators disembarked secretly on the coast of France, and repairedwith the same secrecy to Paris. They communicated with general Moreau, whohad been induced by his wife to embrace the royalist party. Just as theywere about to execute their project, most of them were arrested by thepolice, who had discovered the plot, and traced them. Georges Cadoudal wasexecuted, Pichegru was found strangled in prison, and Moreau was sentencedto two years' imprisonment, commuted to exile. This conspiracy, discoveredin the middle of February, 1804, rendered the person of the first consul,whose life had been thus threatened, still dearer to the masses of thepeople; addresses of congratulation were presented by all the bodies ofthe state, and all the departments of the republic. About this time hesacrificed an illustrious victim. On the 15th of March, the duc d'Enghienwas carried off by a squadron of cavalry from the castle of Ettenheim, inthe grand-duchy of Baden, a few leagues from the Rhine. The first consulbelieved, from the reports of the police, that this prince had directedthe recent conspiracy. The duc d'Engbien was conveyed hastily toVincennes, tried in a few hours by a military commission, and shot in thetrenches of the château. This crime was not an act of policy, orusurpation; but a deed of violence and wrath. The royalists might havethought on the 18th Brumaire that the first consul was studying the partof general Monk; but for four years he had destroyed that hope. He had nolonger any necessity for breaking with them in so outrageous a manner, norfor reassuring, as it has been suggested, the Jacobins, who no longerexisted. Those who remained devoted to the republic, dreaded at this timedespotism far more than a counter-revolution. There is every reason tothink that Bonaparte, who thought little of human life, or of the rightsof nations, having already formed the habit of an expeditious and hastypolicy, imagined the prince to be one of the conspirators, and sought, bya terrible example, to put an end to conspiracies, the only peril thatthreatened his power at that period.

The war with Britain and the conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal and Pichegru,were the stepping-stones by which Bonaparte ascended from the consulate tothe empire. On the 6th Germinal, year XII. (27th March, 1804), the senate,on receiving intelligence of the plot, sent a deputation to the firstconsul. The president, François de Neufchâteau, expressed himself in theseterms: "Citizen first consul, you are founding a new era, but you ought toperpetuate it: splendour is nothing without duration. We do not doubt butthis great idea has had a share of your attention; for your creativegenius embraces all and forgets nothing. But do not delay: you are urgedon by the times, by events, by conspirators, and by ambitious men; and inanother direction, by the anxiety which agitates the French people. It isin your power to enchain time, master events, disarm the ambitious, andtranquillize the whole of France by giving it institutions which willcement your edifice, and prolong for our children what you have done fortheir fathers. Citizen first consul, be assured that the senate herespeaks to you in the name of all citizens."

On the 5th Floréal, year XII. (25th of April, 1804), Bonaparte replied tothe senate from Saint-Cloud, as follows: "Your address has occupied mythoughts incessantly; it has been the subject of my constant meditation.You consider, that the supreme magistracy should be hereditary, in orderto protect the people from the plots of our enemies, and the agitationwhich arises from rival ambitions. You also think that several of ourinstitutions ought to be perfected, to secure the permanent triumph ofequality and public liberty, and to offer the nation and government thetwofold guarantee which they require. The more I consider these greatobjects, the more deeply do I feel that in such novel and importantcircumstances, the councils of your wisdom and experience are necessary toenable me to come to a conclusion. I invite you, then, to communicate tome your ideas on the subject." The senate, in its turn, replied on the14th Floréal (3rd of May): "The senate considers that the interests of theFrench people will be greatly promoted by confiding the government of therepublic to _Napoleon Bonaparte_, as hereditary emperor." By thispreconcerted scene was ushered in the establishment of the empire.

The tribune Curée opened the debate in the tribunate by a motion on thesubject. He dwelt on the same motives as the senators had done. Hisproposition was carried with enthusiasm. Carnot alone had the courage tooppose the empire: "I am far," said he, "from wishing to weaken thepraises bestowed on the first consul; but whatever services a citizen mayhave done to his country, there are bounds which honour, as well asreason, imposes on national gratitude. If this citizen has restored publicliberty, if he has secured the safety of his country, is it a reward tooffer him the sacrifice of that liberty; and would it not be destroyinghis own work to make his country his private patrimony? When once theproposition of holding the consulate for life was presented for the votesof the people, it was easy to see that an after-thought existed. A crowdof institutions evidently monarchical followed in succession; but now theobject of so many preliminary measures is disclosed in a positive manner;we are called to declare our sentiments on a formal motion to restore themonarchical system, and to confer imperial and hereditary dignity on thefirst consul.

"Has liberty, then, only been shown to man that he might never enjoy it?No, I cannot consent to consider this good, so universally preferred toall others, without which all others are as nothing, as a mere illusion.My heart tells me that liberty is attainable; that its regime is easierand more stable than any arbitrary government. I voted against theconsulate for life; I now vote against the restoration of the monarchy; asI conceive my quality as tribune compels me to do."

But he was the only one who thought thus; and his colleagues rivalled eachother in their opposition to the opinion of the only man who alone amongthem remained free. In the speeches of that period, we may see theprodigious change that had taken place in ideas and language. Therevolution had returned to the political principles of the ancient regime;the same enthusiasm and fanaticism existed; but it was the enthusiasm offlattery, the fanaticism of servitude. The French rushed into the empireas they had rushed into the revolution; in the age of reason they referredeverything to the enfranchisement of nations; now they talked of nothingbut the greatness of a man, and of the age of Bonaparte; and they nowfought to make kings, as they had formerly fought to create republics.

The tribunate, the legislative body, and the senate, voted the empire,which was proclaimed at Saint-Cloud on the 28th Floréal, year XII. (18thof May, 1804). On the same day, a senatus-consultum modified theconstitution, which was adapted to the new order of things. The empirerequired its appendages; and French princes, high dignitaries, marshals,chamberlains, and pages were given to it. All publicity was destroyed. Theliberty of the press had already been subjected to censorship; only onetribune remained, and that became mute. The sittings of the tribunate weresecret, like those of the council of state; and from that day, for a spaceof ten years, France was governed with closed doors. Joseph and LouisBonaparte were recognised as French princes. Bethier, Murat, Moncey,Jourdan, Masséna, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier,Ney, Davoust, Bessières, Kellermann, Lefèvre, Pérignon, Sérurier, werenamed marshals of the empire. The departments sent up addresses, and theclergy compared Napoleon to a new Moses, a new Mattathias, a new Cyrus.They saw in his elevation "the finger of God," and said "that submissionwas due to him as dominating over all; to his ministers as sent by him,because such was the order of Providence." Pope Pius VII. came to Paris toconsecrate the new dynasty. The coronation took place on Sunday, the 2ndof December, in the church of Notre-Dame.

Preparations had been making for this ceremony for some time, and it wasregulated according to ancient customs. The emperor repaired to themetropolitan church with the empress Josephine, in a coach surmounted by acrown, drawn by eight white horses, and escorted by his guard. The pope,cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and all the great bodies of the statewere awaiting him in the cathedral, which had been magnificently decoratedfor this extraordinary ceremony. He was addressed in an oration at thedoor; and then, clothed with the imperial mantle, the crown on his head,and the sceptre in his hand, he ascended a throne placed at the end of thechurch. The high almoner, a cardinal, and a bishop, came and conducted himto the foot of the altar for consecration. The pope poured the three-foldunction on his head and hands, and delivered the following prayer:--"OAlmighty God, who didst establish Hazael to govern Syria, and Jehu king ofIsrael, by revealing unto them thy purpose by the mouth of the prophetElias; who didst also shed the holy unction of kings on the head of Sauland of David, by the ministry of thy prophet Samuel, vouchsafe to pour, bymy hands, the treasures of thy grace and blessing on thy servant Napoleon,who, notwithstanding our own unworthiness, we this day consecrate emperorin thy name."

The pope led him solemnly back to the throne; and after he had sworn onthe Testament the oath prescribed by the new constitution, the chiefherald-at-arms cried in a loud voice--"_The most glorious and most augustemperor of the French is crowned and enthroned! Long live the emperor! _"The church instantly resounded with the cry, salvoes of artillery werefired, and the pope intoned the Te Deum. For several days there was asuccession of fêtes; but these fêtes _by command_, these fêtes of absolutepower, did not breathe the frank, lively, popular, and unanimous joy ofthe first federation of the 14th of July; and, exhausted as the peoplewere, they did not welcome the beginning of despotism as they had welcomedthat of liberty.

The consulate was the last period of the existence of the republic. Therevolution was coming to man's estate. During the first period of theconsular government, Bonaparte had gained the proscribed classes byrecalling them, he found a people still agitated by every passion, and herestored them to tranquillity by labour, and to prosperity by restoringorder. Finally he compelled Europe, conquered for the third time, toacknowledge his elevation. Till the treaty of Amiens, he revived in therepublic victory, concord, and prosperity, without sacrificing liberty. Hemight then, had he wished, have made himself the representative of thatgreat age, which sought for that noble system of human dignity theconsecration of far-extended equality, wise liberty, and more developedcivilization. The nation was in the hands of the great man or the despot;it rested with him to preserve it free or to enslave it. He preferred therealization of his selfish projects, and preferred himself to allhumanity. Brought up in tents, coming late into the revolution, he onlyunderstood its material and interested side; he had no faith in the moralwants which had given rise to it, nor in the creeds which had agitated it,and which, sooner or later, would return and destroy him. He saw aninsurrection approaching its end, an exhausted people at his mercy, and acrown on the ground within his reach.

THE EMPIRE

CHAPTER XV

FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE, 1804-1814

After the establishment of the empire, power became more arbitrary, andsociety reconstructed itself on an aristocratic principle. The greatmovement of recomposition, which had commenced on the 9th Thermidor wenton increasing. The convention had abolished classes; the directorydefeated parties; the consulate gained over men; and the empire corruptedthem by distinctions and privileges. This second period was the oppositeof the first. Under the one, we saw the government of the committeesexercised by men elected every three months, without guards, honours, orrepresentation, living on a few francs a day, working eighteen hourstogether on common wooden tables; under the other, the government of theempire, with all its paraphernalia of administration, it chamberlains,gentlemen, praetorian guard, hereditary rights, its immense civil list,and dazzling ostentation. The national activity was exclusively directedto labour and war. All material interests, all ambitious passions, werehierarchically arranged under one leader, who, after having sacrificedliberty by establishing absolute power, destroyed equality by introducingnobility.

The directory had erected all the surrounding states into republics;Napoleon wished to constitute them on the model of the empire. He beganwith Italy. The council of state of the Cisalpine republic determined onrestoring hereditary monarchy in favour of Napoleon. Its vice-president,M. Melzi, came to Paris to communicate to him this decision. On the 26thVentôse, year XIII. (17th of March, 1805), he was received with greatsolemnity at the Tuileries. Napoleon was on his throne, surrounded by hiscourt, and all the splendour of sovereign power, in the display of whichhe delighted. M. Melzi offered him the crown, in the name of his fellow-citizens. "Sire," said he, in conclusion, "deign to gratify the wishes ofthe assembly over which I have the honour to preside. Interpreter of thesentiments which animate every Italian heart, it brings you their sincerehomage. It will inform them with joy that by accepting, you havestrengthened the ties which attach you to the preservation, defence, andprosperity of the Italian nation. Yes, sire, you wished the existence ofthe Italian republic, and it existed. Desire the Italian monarchy to behappy, and it will be so."

The emperor went to take possession of this kingdom; and, on the 26th ofMay, 1805, he received at Milan the iron crown of the Lombards. Heappointed his adopted son, prince Eugene de Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy,and repaired to Genoa, which also renounced its sovereignty. On the 4th ofJune, 1805, its territory was united to the empire, and formed the threedepartments of Genoa, Montenotte, and the Apennines. The small republic ofLucca was included in this monarchical revolution. At the request of itsgonfalonier, it was given in appanage to the prince of Piombino and hisprincess, a sister of Napoleon. The latter, after this royal progress,recrossed the Alps, and returned to the capital of his empire; he soonafter departed for the camp at Boulogne, where a great maritime expeditionagainst England was preparing.

This project of descent which the directory had entertained after thepeace of Campo-Formio, and the first consul, after the peace of Lunéville,had been resumed with much ardour since the new rupture. At thecommencement of 1805, a flotilla of two thousand small vessels, manned bysixteen thousand sailors, carrying an army of one hundred and sixtythousand men, nine thousand horses, and a numerous artillery, hadassembled in the ports of Boulogne, Etaples, Wimereux, Ambleteuse. andCalais. The emperor was hastening by his presence the execution of thisproject, when he learned that England, to avoid the descent with which itwas threatened, had prevailed on Austria to come to a rupture with France,and that all the forces of the Austrian monarchy were in motion. Ninetythousand men, under the archduke Ferdinand and general Mack, had crossedthe Jura, seized on Munich, and driven out the elector of Bavaria, theally of France; thirty thousand, under the archduke John, occupied theTyrol, and the archduke Charles, with one hundred thousand men, wasadvancing on the Adige. Two Russian armies were preparing to join theAustrians. Pitt had made the greatest efforts to organize this thirdcoalition. The establishment of the kingdom of Italy, the annexation ofGenoa and Piedmont to France, the open influence of the emperor overHolland and Switzerland, had again aroused Europe, which now dreaded theambition of Napoleon as much as it had formerly feared the principles ofthe revolution. The treaty of alliance between the British ministry andthe Russian cabinet had been signed on the 11th of April, 1805, andAustria had acceded to it on the 9th of August.

Napoleon left Boulogne, returned hastily to Paris, repaired to the senateon the 23rd of September, obtained a levy of eighty thousand men, and setout the next day to begin the campaign. He passed the Rhine on the 1st ofOctober, and entered Bavaria on the 6th, with an army of a hundred andsixty thousand men. Masséna held back Prince Charles in Italy, and theemperor carried on the war in Germany at full speed. In a few days hepassed the Danube, entered Munich, gained the victory of Wertingen, andforced general Mack to lay down his arms at Ulm. This capitulationdisorganized the Austrian army. Napoleon pursued the course of hisvictories, entered Vienna on the 13th of November, and then marched intoMoravia to meet the Russians, round whom the defeated troops had rallied.

On the 2nd of December, 1805, the anniversary of the coronation, the twoarmies met in the plains of Austerlitz. The enemy amounted to ninety-fivethousand men, the French to eighty thousand. On both sides the artillerywas formidable. The battle began at sunrise; these enormous masses beganto move; the Russian infantry could not stand against the impetuosity ofour troops and the manoeuvres of their general. The enemy's left was firstcut off; the Russian imperial guard came up to re-establish thecommunication, and was entirely overwhelmed. The centre experienced thesame fate, and at one o'clock in the afternoon the most decisive victoryhad completed this wonderful campaign. The following day the emperorcongratulated the army in a proclamation on the field of battle itself:"Soldiers," said he, "I am satisfied with you. You have adorned youreagles with immortal glory. An army of a hundred thousand men, commandedby the emperors of Russia and Austria, in less than four days has been cutto pieces or dispersed; those who escaped your steel have been drowned inthe lakes. Forty flags, the standards of the Russian imperial guard, ahundred and twenty pieces of cannon, twenty generals, more than thirtythousand prisoners, are the result of this ever memorable day. Thisinfantry, so vaunted and so superior in numbers, could not resist yourshock, and henceforth you have no more rivals to fear. Thus, in twomonths, this third coalition has been defeated and dissolved." A truce wasconcluded with Austria; and the Russians, who might have been cut topieces, obtained permission to retire by fixed stages.

The peace of Pressburg followed the victories of Ulm and Austerlitz; itwas signed on the 26th of December. The house of Austria, which had lostits external possessions, Holland and the Milanese, was now assailed inGermany itself. It gave up the provinces of Dalmatia and Albania to thekingdom of Italy; the territory of the Tyrol, the town of Augsburg, theprincipality of Eichstett, a part of the territory of Passau, and all itspossessions in Swabia, Brisgau, and Ortenau to the electorates of Bavariaand Wurtemberg, which were transformed into kingdoms. The grand duchy ofBaden also profited by its spoils. The treaty of Pressburg completed thehumiliation of Austria, commenced by the treaty of Campo-Formio, andcontinued by that of Lunéville. The emperor, on his return to Paris,crowned with so much glory, became the object of such general and wildadmiration, that he was himself carried away by the public enthusiasm andintoxicated at his fortune. The different bodies of the state contendedamong themselves in obedience and flatteries. He received the title ofGreat, and the senate passed a decree dedicating to him a triumphalmonument.

Napoleon became more confirmed in the principle he had espoused. Thevictory of Marengo and the peace of Lunéville had sanctioned theconsulate; the victory of Austerlitz and peace of Pressburg consecratedthe empire. The last vestiges of the revolution were abandoned. On the 1stof January, 1806, the Gregorian calendar definitively replaced therepublican calendar, after an existence of fourteen years. The Panthéonwas again devoted to purposes of worship, and soon even the tribunateceased to exist. But the emperor aimed especially at extending hisdominion over the continent. Ferdinand, king of Naples, having, during thelast war, violated the treaty of peace with France, had his statesinvaded; and Joseph Bonaparte on the 30th of March was declared king ofthe Two Sicilies. Soon after (June 5th, 1806), Holland was converted intoa kingdom, and received as monarch Louis Bonaparte, another brother of theemperor. None of the republics created by the convention, or thedirectory, now existed. Napoleon, in nominating secondary kings, restoredthe military hierarchical system, and the titles of the middle ages. Heerected Dalmatia, Istria, Friuli, Cadore, Belluno, Conegliano, Treviso,Feltra, Bassano, Vicenza, Padua, and Rovigo into duchies, great fiefs ofthe empire. Marshal Berthier was invested with the principality ofNeufchâtel, the minister Talleyrand with that of Benevento. PrinceBorghese and his wife with that of Guastalla, Murat with the grand-duchyof Berg and Clèves. Napoleon, not venturing to destroy the Swiss republic,styled himself its mediator, and completed the organization of hismilitary empire by placing under his dependence the ancient Germanic body.On the 12th of July, 1806, fourteen princes of the south and west ofGermany united themselves into the confederation of the Rhine, andrecognized Napoleon as their protector. On the 1st of August, theysignified to the diet of Ratisbon their separation from the Germanic body.The empire of Germany ceased to exist, and Francis II. abdicated the titleby proclamation. By a convention signed at Vienna, on the 15th ofDecember, Prussia exchanged the territories of Anspach, Clèves, andNeufchâtel for the electorate of Hanover. Napoleon had all the west underhis power. Absolute master of France and Italy, as emperor and king, hewas also master of Spain, by the dependence of that court; of Naples andHolland, by his two brothers; of Switzerland, by the act of mediation; andin Germany he had at his disposal the kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, andthe confederation of the Rhine against Austria and Prussia. After thepeace of Amiens, by supporting liberty he might have made himself theprotector of France and the moderator of Europe; but having sought gloryin domination, and made conquest the object of his life, he condemnedhimself to a long struggle, which would inevitably terminate in thedependence of the continent or in his own downfall.

This encroaching progress gave rise to the fourth coalition. Prussia,neutral since the peace of Basle, had, in the last campaign, been on thepoint of joining the Austro-Russian coalition. The rapidity of theemperor's victories had alone restrained her; but now, alarmed at theaggrandizement of the empire, and encouraged by the fine condition of hertroops, she leagued with Russia to drive the French from Germany. Thecabinet of Berlin required that the French troops should recross theRhine, or war would be the consequence. At the same time, it sought toform in the north of Germany a league against the confederation of thesouth. The emperor, who was in the plenitude of his prosperity and ofnational enthusiasm, far from submitting to the _ultimatum_ of Prussia,immediately marched against her.

The campaign opened early in October. Napoleon, as usual, overwhelmed thecoalition by the promptitude of his marches and the vigour of hismeasures. On the 14th of October, he destroyed at Jena the militarymonarchy of Prussia, by a decisive victory; on the 16th, fourteen thousandPrussians threw down their arms at Erfurth; on the 25th, the French armyentered Berlin, and the close of 1806 was employed in taking the Prussianfortresses and marching into Poland against the Russian army. The campaignin Poland was less rapid, but as brilliant as that of Prussia. Russia, forthe third time, measured its strength with France. Conquered at Zurich andAusterlitz, it was also defeated at Eylau and Friedland. After thesememorable battles, the emperor Alexander entered into a negotiation, andconcluded at Tilsit, on the 21st of June, 1807, an armistice which wasfollowed by a definitive treaty on the 7th of July.

The peace of Tilsit extended the French domination on the continent.Prussia was reduced to half its extent. In the south of Germany, Napoleonhad instituted the two kingdoms of Bavaria and Wurtemberg against Austria;further to the north, he created the two feudatory kingdoms of Saxony andWestphalia against Prussia. That of Saxony, composed of the electorate ofthat name, and Prussian Poland, called the grand-duchy of Warsaw, wasgiven to the king of Saxony; that of Westphalia comprehended the states ofHesse-Cassel, Brunswick, Fulde, Paderborn, and the greatest part ofHanover, and was given to Jerome Napoleon. The emperor Alexander, accedingto all these arrangements, evacuated Moldavia and Wallachia. Russia,however, though conquered, was the only power unencroached upon. Napoleonfollowed more than ever in the footsteps of Charlemagne; at hiscoronation, he had had the crown, sword, and sceptre, of the Frank kingcarried before him. A pope had crossed the Alps to consecrate his dynasty,and he modelled his states on the vast empire of that conqueror. Therevolution sought the establishment of ancient liberty; Napoleon restoredthe military hierarchy of the middle ages. The former had made citizens,the latter made vassals. The one had changed Europe into republics, theother transformed it into fiefs. Great and powerful as he was, comingimmediately after a shock which had exhausted the world by its violence,he was enabled to arrange it for a time according to his pleasure. The_grand empire_ rose internally by its system of administration, which